Cowdog: A Western Fairy Tale
by Persianjuliette
Summary: Kagome is a bored teen living on her family's ranch. Inuyasha is a wannabe outlaw and half-demon from long ago. When Kagome discovers an old mineshaft on her property, she is transported back to the Wild West! She finds herself smack-dab in the middle of a world filled with crazy gunslingers and magic, where a half-devil bandit may be her only hope of survival.
1. The Gal Who Overcame Time

One: The Gal Who Overcame Time

Kagome Higurashi was bored and grumpy. She blamed the oppressive California sun, cooking her brain and making her irritable. At breakfast, her grandfather had suggested that maybe she had mono, but he was always trying to diagnose her with something or other. Her mom brushed it off as teenage ennui, which irritated the girl even more than her granddad's wild speculations. Just because she was a teenager didn't mean that everything she did was some weird, hormone-fueled spectacle! _Geez_ , _Mom!_ But no one was taking her seriously, so she slouched out of the house and went down the hill to explore the ranch. Her fat calico cat Buyo strolled at her heels, looking as bored as she was.

It was an old, old property that had been in the family for generations, almost since the days of the first settlers of the West, but Kagome didn't see the point in having 30-odd acres of dry, boring brush and hills. The city was miles away, and the beach was even further, so all she had to look at was cow country- minus the cows. Granddad told her stories of how her great, great, great grandparents fought to keep the deed from greedy land developers, and how a bustling town had been built nearby. It had quickly been abandoned as the money ran out and the newcomers realized that the land held nothing for them. People had come and gone, but her family stubbornly clung to the ranch. She idly watched a hawk catch a thermal and hang in the air, no doubt looking for the mice that must be scurrying around the sun-baked rocks that quivered and shook with heat.

"Kagome! Hey, wait up!"

Kagome turned and squinted into the sun, her hand shading her eyes, and watched as her little brother Sota ran down from the house to catch up with her. He wore shorts, and his bare knees sported three colorful Band-Aids. He grinned at her as they continued to walk on together, her passive acceptance of his company implying approval.

"So, Gramps asked me to help him use the computer to look up your 'symptoms.'"

The girl stuck her hands deep in the pockets of her cutoff shorts and huffed. "I'll bet! Did you do it?"

Sota crouched briefly to pet Buyo, who meowed appreciatively. "Yeah, I just pulled up WebMD. I figured he can look up all the diseases he wants on there."

"Ugh, seriously? You brat!"

Sota only giggled, looking pleased with his mischief. Kagome sighed irritably, and they walked on in silence for a time. Her brother could be a real nuisance at times, but they didn't fight the way Kagome had noticed other siblings did. He was a caring kid, and she was too motherly not to get along with him- most of the time, anyway. Even when he teased her and she got mad, he would come out with some thoughtful gesture and she couldn't seem to stay mad. Kagome bet that their mom was grateful for that. Raising two kids and taking care of their kooky granddad would have been that much harder if the siblings fought like cats and dogs.

Kagome felt a twinge of guilt as she thought about her mom's situation. Kagome was devoted to her mother, but she wasn't alone. Anyone who spent time with the kind-hearted woman couldn't help but care for her. Kagome could forgive her the occasional motherly embarrassment, after all. And, as she looked back on what her mother had said at breakfast, Kagome couldn't help but agree that she had been acting just a little moody. Just a _little_ , though.

Sota kicked a tumbleweed ball for a ways, until he lost it down a shallow ravine. Buyo bounded down the slope with a sudden energy, and the siblings followed. When they reached the flat bottom of what might have been a riverbed once, Kagome noticed a large dead bush with a strange shadow. Moving closer, she saw that the weeds almost obscured an old pile of wooden slats, haphazardly covering an opening in the side of the gulch.

"Hey, Sota, check this out! There's a hole! Gimme a hand here." As her brother joined her, she rolled up her sleeves and the pair pulled the boards away, grunting with the effort. They came reluctantly, falling to the ground with a dusty thump, and Kagome was pleased to see something new and interesting, at last.

There was a hole in the side of the ravine. It was just barely tall enough to enter if you crouched a little, and the sides were shored up with ancient wooden props. Kagome knew enough to guess that this was an old mining entrance, maybe even dating back to the Gold Rush. She poked her head inside, blinking and trying to peer through the strange darkness. It was weird; despite the sun blazing hot and bright just outside, no light seemed to enter the mineshaft. It was cool and quiet and entirely dark. Sota shifted nervously, his small hand reaching for hers.

As they gazed into the old, forgotten mineshaft, Buyo suddenly leapt into the hole, tail flicking and ears perked.

Kagome cried, "Oh, come _on!_ Buyo, get out of there!"

Sota dug his heels in as his sister started forward. "Buyo! I- Hey, wait, what if it caves in? I don't wanna go in there."

Kagome was a smart girl. She definitely knew better than to go crawling down tunnels and mineshafts all by herself without even a flashlight. She only intended to venture in a few feet and grab her wayward pet, but the instant her body entered the darkness, she saw Buyo streak past her, racing out of the tunnel and into Sota's arms. Her brother, standing bemused and dusty in the hot morning sunlight, was the last thing she saw. With no warning, the circle of light that was the weedy tunnel entrance vanished.

With a shriek of alarm, she whirled around, hands outstretched, groping for the light and warmth, but all she felt was cool stone and empty tunnel in either direction. A breeze- from where?- lifted and seemed to push against her, urging the panicking girl forward. She began to feel as though she was swimming, her limbs tingling and lifting higher as though buoyed up. The breeze became a current, insistent and rough, and her sneakers no longer touched solid ground. Her baseball cap was lost in the cold, swirling darkness, and her hair lifted out of its ponytail and swirled loose and long around her.

Kagome was frozen in bewildered fear. The crazed kicking of her limbs was not ordered by her rational brain, but by some deeply primal survival instinct. She could breathe just fine, but breathing felt like pulling a heavy liquid through her lungs, and _that_ felt like drowning.

Time was chaos. She did not know how long she had been pulled though the tunnel before she felt something under her outstretched hand. It was not the stone and hard-packed dirt of the tunnel wall, or even the small hand of her little brother reaching out to her. It was warm, and smooth, and almost... scaly. Before she could properly register that new sensation, the thing in the dark wrapped around her arm and _pulled._ She finally screamed, and with the scream came illumination. The silence was filled with noise, and the darkness was thrown back like a heavy blanket. The soft pink glow seemed to emanate from somewhere close to her, but with no tangible source. What it revealed was a horror beyond the world she knew.

Inches away from her petrified, open-mouthed face was the gaping, grinning visage of a monstrous woman. Bald, slit-pupiled, and with a jaw so wide that it appeared to hinge around the back of her ridged head, she was the stuff of nightmares. Her bare breasts scandalized some completely detached and irrational part of Kagome's brain. The rest of it was too busy screaming silently and taking in the rest of the monster. All resemblance to a human woman ended at the waist, and her trunk thickened and coiled out all around them in a seemingly endless tail. Kagome dimly recognized the markings on the woman's tail, and a word pushed to the surface of her mind. _Diamondback._ She tore her eyes from the creature as the hold on her arm tightened, and she saw the end of the gigantic tail gripping her, tight as a noose. The rattle at the tip, as big as her fist, shook. The noise was incredibly loud in the watery, dimly lit tunnel, and it made her teeth ache.

All of this, Kagome observed in the spare few seconds before the snake-woman reached out a brown, scaled hand and gripped her tight by the neck. Kagome, unable to scream, flailed wildly. Still silent, the creature opened its mouth. Wide, wider than a human, unhinging its jaw until Kagome could see down its pink throat, and then two needlelike fangs flicked forward. The sight of the fangs spurred Kagome's last desperate instincts. Struggling for breath, staring into the jaws of death, and with no time to question the impossibility of it all, she thrust out a hand and her lips formed around a single unheard word. _STOP!_

To her own amazement, something happened. A brilliant pink-white flash flared from her outstretched hand, and the creature was blasted back with a force that sent Kagome spinning. The creature shrieked when the light touched it, a gravelly, grating noise that made Kagome want to curl up in a ball and sob. The coils around her arm released her, and the angry rattle disappeared into the darkness. The glow remained, but the only thing Kagome could see was herself.

There was no time to feel anything except shock, as all at once the thick, cloying darkness was ripped back as quickly as the rattlesnake beast had been. Kagome gasped as the cold watery sensation was replaced with heat, and fresh air, and she was falling. The warm night air that she had just inhaled for the first time was knocked out of her as she hit the ground, hard. She lay there, panting and trying to calm down, as sudden noise assaulted her ears. Where there had been nothing, now there was the sound of crickets, of rustling, of wind and night-birds.

It was all too much, too fast, and the girl wanted to lay down and cry more than anything. But the threat of a monster lay behind her and the promise of help lay ahead, so Kagome slowly pushed herself to her feet. Looking ahead into the empty night, she wondered how long she had been in the tunnel, after all. She wondered how her family was doing, thinking she had fallen down a hole in the side of a hill. Nothing looked familiar, and she realized with dread that she could no longer see her house, nor any familiar landmarks. She wished she knew what was going on, or why she felt a strange compulsion to go into the little grove of sequoia trees on top of a nearby hill.

Kagome had a million questions and no answers. She did the only thing she could do; she squared her shoulders, wiped her eyes, and set off for the hill, letting her heart lead the way.


	2. The B'Hoy Who Was Overcome

Two: The B'Hoy Who Was Overcome

Inuyasha was dreaming. He tended to do a lot of that, nowadays. Seeing as how his whole body was paralyzed, he couldn't do much else. Sometimes, he didn't even dream. He preferred the blank passage of time. It was a mercy, as the years rolled by ever so slowly. There was a lot of time _to_ pass, after all. He had been nailed to this damn tree by a holy arrow for longer than he cared to recollect. Maybe longer than he could recollect. Sometimes he heard voices drifting in, disturbing his thoughts, and he was vaguely aware that outside his own head the world was changing. Mostly, though, what Inuyasha saw was fire.

There had been a lot of it on that last night. The day had started out like a wonderful dream- the lovers making vows to each other, promising to change. To be together. Kikyo (he hated to remember that name) had gone off to get the stone, and then, in the red light of the setting sun, the dream turned sour.

Inuyasha's eyelids flickered as he dreamed, hanging from the fat-trunked sequoia. They were the only part of him that ever moved.

There had been surprise, and pain. Betrayal, and enormous shock. Then hatred filled him, and Inuyasha remembered the cries of the townsfolk as his rampage destroyed buildings, destroyed livestock, destroyed lives. He had snatched the holy jewel and been off like a shot. All his dreams for a human life were shattered, and the devil within him was screaming for blood. If Kikyo (don't think about her eyes, the hurt and rage in them) didn't want him as a human man, she would have him as a monster.

The confrontation at the old sequoia tree. The mob, terrified and furious all at once; stinking humans seething like a pot on the fire. Torches dancing and making the air shimmer like a mirage. And Kikyo (whom he had whispered lines of love to) at the front, her bow raised, her eyes merciless. Her bloodstained dress and glossy black hair caught the red torchlight, and she seemed to him more demonic in that moment than he ever did to himself.

The arrow, burning with magic from the heart of his betrothed, struck true, pinning him there. His nerveless fingers released the gem. As the binding took hold, as his body was frozen and his spirit sealed away, Inuyasha held her eyes. There was an emptiness there that broke his heart. Kikyo's beautiful, hateful face was seared into his mind. It was what he would see, over and over in his nightmares, for fifty long years.

And then- through the tang of blood, the visions of madness- there was a new sensation. A new voice. In his dreams, the scent of _her_ filled his nose still, but somehow it was stronger. The new feeling was an outside one, like the voices that sometimes filtered through and reminded him where he was. What was happening? Was someone _touching_ him? Actually daring to _touch_ him? Finally, more alert than he had been in a long time, he was able to put a finger on it.

Someone was rubbing his ears. His sensitive, furry dog ears, bereft of a hat, were being molested by god knows who. Groggily, in his dreaming state, Inuyasha was seething. A voice was talking nonsense, saying something that echoed and bounced around his head like an India-rubber ball.

The voice grew louder, and then, without warning, there was an immense, painful tug. It felt as though someone was trying to tear his heart out through his chest, but he could not move or scream. Cacti, bullets, his father's claws- nothing had ever hurt like this. The pain was physical and magical, and he felt his flesh and his soul stretching, ripping, _tearing_ apart, before-

It was nighttime. The full moon shone gently, sympathetic enough to hide most of itself behind a scrap of cloud while his eyes adjusted to the world for the first time in fifty years. Familiar scents overwhelmed him, making his head spin. He could smell the coyote that had wandered by an hour ago, he could smell the bitter water inside a cactus plant a hundred feet away, he could smell the bugs in the dirt and the eagles on the plateaus. He could smell- Kikyo.

There she was, illuminated by the stars, pressed up close to him. Her eyes held none of the hatred he remembered, and her scent told him she felt nothing but curiosity, confusion, and alarm. And yet, in her hand was an arrow, dripping with his own blood.

His brain, overloaded with new information and adrenaline and pain, could not handle this. His instincts took over, and with one motion he shoved her away and leaped back ten feet, landing in a crouch. His bare toes curled into the dirt, and his claws dug down for purchase. He bared his teeth in a feral snarl, and one thought rose above all others in his mind. _I won't let her seal me again. "_ Kikyo! Don't come any closer!"

Kikyo, however, seemed to have no intention of attacking him. She sat sprawled in the dust, looking stunned and hurt. Inuyasha noticed with confusion that she was wearing clothes that he had never seen before- a checked shirt like a man would wear, and a pair of scandalously short denim pants that were entirely indecent to be wearing in public. Her hair was different too, all loose and cattywampus, when he had never seen her with a hair out of place in her perfect braids. But her scent was the same, and her face was the same, and the rest only served to make him suspicious. She spoke, and he folded his ears back aggressively when he heard a stranger's voice with a strange, flat accent.

"Hey, jerk! Why did you push me? I was just trying to help!"

Inuyasha growled. "Stop playing around, Kikyo. I know your game now, and you ain't gonna catch me like that again. So if you wanna kill me, just do it."

Kikyo looked baffled. "What? My name's not Kikyo, it's Kagome."

This was unexpected. Inuyasha had no idea what she could possibly be up to, but he wasn't going to let his guard down. "Shut up and give me the jewel. Do that, and I'll spare your life. After, though, I don't owe you anything."

The girl- no, Kikyo, definitely Kikyo- was staring at him open-mouthed. "What jewel? What are you talking about, you weirdo? I don't even know you!"

Weirdo? Inuyasha was caught off-balance again by Kikyo's voice, and the words she was using. He stood, still defensive, claws still flexed and held at the ready. The breeze batted at strands of his long, white hair.

There was something else on the breeze. Inuyasha was still trying to puzzle out what to say when his sensitive nose caught a new scent on the wind. He stiffened, crouching low. "Well, it looks like we got company now. You'd better hand over the jewel now, before it's too late."

"Too late? What's-" She interrupted herself with a scream of fright as she saw what he had already scented.

Cresting the hill, snapping saplings like twigs under her powerful tail, came the rattlesnake woman. Her inhuman jaw gaped in a hiss, her sharp-nailed fingers outstretched. She was fast, alarmingly so, and Inuyasha saw Kikyo scramble back and trip over a protruding tree root in her haste to get away. A rattle that sounded like a cascade of dry bones filled the air, and he heard the girl whimper.

 _Where's her bow?_ he wondered, and a sliver of doubt began to take hold. Maybe this really wasn't her, somehow. Maybe some magic unknown to him had changed Kikyo. Maybe anything, but he didn't have time to think anymore. The massive devil was upon them, and Inuyasha was ready. The wind was up now, and he was free, no matter what else was happening. The white moon caught in his hair and his yellow eyes as he tossed his head back and grinned a bestial grin. He flexed muscles that hadn't been used for fifty years. This was perfect. He would let the devil have Kikyo, and then kill it and use the jewel to become a full-fledged devil himself. The confusion and apprehension that had dogged him since he woke was gone.

Kikyo screamed as the nightmare creature bore down on her. It was close enough for her to smell its acrid breath, and she shut her eyes tight. She was backed flush against the tree, and Inuyasha found it curious how different she was from the Kikyo he used to know. She could not fight, apparently- and if she was Kikyo, she would have used her strange spirit magic on the devil by now. But this- this girl could not save herself. But there was a strange scent on the air, now, apart from the desert-smell, Kikyo's scent, and the reek of demon. And then- a shout! The sound of hoofbeats pounding! A group of townsfolk on horses, led by an old woman dressed like a healer- her dress was just like Kikyo's and she even had a bow- had the full attention of the rattlesnake woman. Some carried torches, and they all had guns. She hissed again, and the first bullet struck, sinking deep into her scaly shoulder.

Probably-Kikyo fell over herself in her haste to escape while the monster was distracted. She ran away, sneakers slipping in the dry dirt. Inuyasha jumped forwards, leaping into her path and preventing any escape. The girl skidded and tripped, falling into his arms. Her scent filled his head again, but something was different now. His head was clearer than it had been, and he was able to identify something subtly different, under the unusually strong smell of soap and chemicals. Kikyo's scent was one he knew well, and it had always reminded him of the big, waxy flowers one saw in shops, from hothouses, exotic blossoms. This girl smelled flowery, too, but what was it? What was the difference? He gripped her shoulders and glared. "You aren't Kikyo at all."

She tried to hit him. "That's what I said like fifty times, dummy! My name's Kagome, okay? Now let go! That monster's gonna kill me!"

The old woman cursed and swung her bow around when she saw Inuyasha. "Drat it, he's loose! Look out, boys, it's that Inuyasha fice! Watch yourselves, now. Silvers, fire at Miz Rattler on my mark! Ready? _Hie!_ "

Four of the men took aim and fired at the horrendous woman-beast. Inuyasha cursed and ducked behind the tree, where the posse couldn't get him with any blessed metal. He still held the girl, who had gone limp momentarily and smelled of confusion. From his vantage point peeking around the tree, he could see that the bullets had not fazed Miz Rattler in the least, and she had bitten one of the men's horses. It had fallen, screaming in that horrible way that animals in pain will, and trapped its rider underneath as it died, the devil's poison coursing through its veins. Its huge heart beat frantically in terror, and Inuyasha smelled death on the wind. He winced at the sound of the horse and man crying out as more bullets beat the air.

The snake-woman was not awfully interested in the posse. As this peculiar Kagome girl had said, it seemed to be fixated on her. Its flat face cracked slightly as a long tongue flickered out to taste the air. Then, with a speed that made the townsfolk's horses rear and the men yell out in alarm, it turned away and sped straight for Inuyasha and Kagome. Inuyasha jumped straight up, over its outstretched talons and gape-jawed head, and swung himself up into the tree. He had not thought to keep hold of the girl, and suddenly from below there came a piercing scream.

He looked down in time to see a flash of red and a glint of pink, illuminated only by moonlight to his piercing yellow eyes. They widened in alarm as he saw Miz Rattler's talons flashing, having gouged out a chunk of Kagome's side. The girl collapsed in a puddle of her own blood. Something glinted pink again, catching his eye- and the eye of the devil below. It reached down and gingerly picked up a small stone from the dirt. It had been dislodged from inside the girl's body, somehow, and as the devil held it up triumphantly, Inuyasha recognized it with a start. It was the gem, the Seeing Stone, the same one that he had last seen in Kikyo's hand fifty years ago.

Before he could gather himself and leap for it, the serpent below had opened her unnervingly wide mouth and swallowed it. A pink glow, like that of the stone, began to shine around its coiled form. Its body stretched and swelled hideously, becoming deformed. Inuyasha gritted his teeth. He could feel it becoming stronger, fed by the immense magic of the Stone- where he had once been confident it was no threat to him, he now began to worry. Kagome stirred and moaned softly in the dirt below him. It was time to act. _Oh well,_ he thought, with a grim satisfaction. _It'll be great to sink my claws into something, after all this time._

Claws out and teeth bared, the white-haired boy dropped from the tree.


	3. Down The Long Hells

3- Down The Long Hells

Kagome's world had shunk down to a pinprick of white light. The pain made her head swim, and so she tried to distract herself with it, keeping her eyes focused on the tiny circle. It wavered and shone, and she felt that if the light disappeared, she would go blind from the pain. As her watering eyes adjusted, she realized that it was the moon. It shone down, its gentle light illuminating the battlefield and the injured girl. Kagome gazed up, tears running down her face. She tasted blood in her mouth; she had bitten her lip when she fell. The coppery taste had flooded her mouth, and now it was all she could smell.

She had a strange idea, suddenly, that she was drowning again. The world was a bowl that had filled up to the brim with blood, and she was desperately struggling to stay afloat. The moon was there, high above the lapping red waves, but there was no way for Kagome to reach it. A burst of pain lanced through her side as she coughed, and she imagined herself sinking below the surface. The moon turned red.

Kagome had only felt this much pain once before in her life, though she hardly remembered it. When she was eight years old, she had run away from home for the first and only time. Her father had recently died, and her mother was having a hard time looking after the family by herself. In Kagome's simplified view of the world, she was being neglected. Usually a helpful and loving child, she had gotten fed up with the lack of attention at home and decided, with the clear logic of an eight-year-old, that she would run away and live all by herself. She had only made it a few blocks before she tripped and sprained her ankle. The weight of her backpack, into which she had stuffed all her books and five boxes of apple juice, made her stagger and twist her ankle on an uneven stretch of lawn while crossing someone's yard.  
It was only five minute before her mom, who had already gone out looking for her, found her wailing daughter sitting on the grass, but it felt like eternity. Now, wounded by an impossible monster, she knew somehow that her mother wouldn't be rescuing her this time. She had to rely on herself if she wanted to survive this madness.

Summoning a strength that she did not know she had, Kagome pulled herself up into a sitting position. Though it was slow going, and every breath was agony, she managed to scoot back until she was leaning up against the sequoia tree where the boy had been trapped only minutes ago. Breathing hard, she surveyed the scene.  
The boy was clinging onto the back of the bucking monster with claws and teeth. He laughed like a maniac, the monster howled, and a woman's voice shouted an order. Kagome couldn't quite make out what she had said, but there was the sound of gunfire, and the monster's torso was suddenly riddled with holes.

"Hey, watch it, humans!" the boy shouted. One of the bullets had torn through the shoulder of his jacket, and Kagome saw blood staining his jacket a darker red. He bared his teeth, and to Kagome's utter astonishment, began shredding the devil to pieces with great sweeps of his claws. They weren't any longer than the fake nails of Kagome's school principal, yet they cut the rattlesnake woman to ribbons as though the boy had swords on his fingertips. This must be more magic.

Kagome knew that the things she had witnessed today were impossible, and instead of trying to deny them or explain them away any longer, she embraced the idea of real, live, actual magic. A rattlesnake monster that grew to the size of a school bus? Magic. A mineshaft that turned into a portal and spit her out in an unfamiliar landscape at night? Definitely magic. A pink gemstone that- Kagome winced- had been inside her body until the monster gouged it out? People on horses dressed like cowboys? A dog-boy with super-soft ears? Gotta be one-hundred-percent magic, for sure.

The rattlesnake woman was little more than meat, now. The boy stood knee-deep in the remains, cracking his knuckles and looking darkly satisfied. The group of people on the other side of the clearing had spread out, edging around until they were fanned out in a semi-circle. The old woman was only a few feet away from Kagome, and their eyes met. Her horse was scruffy, and looked more like a pony than the taller, more respectable horses of the men, but it was probably easier for an old lady to have a mount that was a little closer to the ground.

Her outfit was as strange as the boy's, and looked like a costume straight out of a Halloween store. She wore a buckskin dress and boots, a hat, and had a bow slung over her back, in addition to the rifle she held. Her long, grey hair was back in two neat braids. The old lady did a double-take, gasping at the sight of Kagome sitting against the tree, hands covered in her own blood. She mouthed a word that Kagome thought looked an awful lot like "Kikyo". Or maybe she was saying "cereal". No, that didn't make sense. Kagome wasn't thinking straight.

Before either of them could do anything else, there was a hissing noise from the center of the clearing. Unexpectedly, the severed head of the snake-devil had tried to take one last bite out of the boy's leg. Cursing, he batted it away like a volleyball, his claws sinking into it like butter. As it flew towards Kagome, something was dislodged from the torn stump of the neck. Pink and shining with a light all its own, it bounced and rolled to her feet. This was certainly the stone that had- inexplicably- been in her side. She leaned forward with a grunt and picked up the stone. It felt warm, and her skin prickled all over with a new sensation that she could only attribute to the stone itself. Must be more magic.

As soon as her fingers closed around the gem, both the old woman and the white-haired boy shouted at her. "You, gal! Don't you give those over!"

"Hey, gimme that!"

Kagome froze. "Hold on, guys, this was _inside_ me, remember? Can I get an explanation? _Please?_ "

The strange boy jumped forward, landing only feet away. He crouched on all fours in a remarkably doglike manner, but Kagome had to admit that she had never seen such a fierce expression on a dog before. The old woman slid off her horse clumsily, but seemed too cautious to rush to Kagome's side. Her men obviously agreed with her. Their horses shied and stamped nervously, but they made no move, only gripped their guns tighter and exchanged uncomfortable glances. None of this made Kagome feel better in the least.

She just could not believe that this boy posed any kind of threat to her- not even after seeing him cut down that thing that they called Miz Rattler. He only looked a few years older than her, and while he had been acting like a snotty jerk, Kagome couldn't bring herself to be really scared of him. She felt annoyed. The pain in her side was not helping.

Pressing one hand to the wound and clutching the gem in the other, Kagome stood, slowly and shakily. The old woman took a step forward, but stopped, seeming to hold herself back. Her good eye- the one without a black leather eye patch- narrowed. The boy stood, too, holding out his hand.

"Look, you g'hal, I've been nice so far," he told her. "But that stone's mine. I'll make it real simple. Give it to me if you wanna live. _Capiche?"_

The old woman shook her fist at him. "Don't you let him gull you, now! If Inuyasha gets holt of that jewel, it'll be the worse for all of us!"

Kagome shook her head, thoroughly confused now. "Hang on, okay? I'm sure we can just talk this out. Look- Inuyasha, right? How about you back off a little bit and-"

The dog-eared boy flattened his ears. He looked pissed. "Don't try and talk your way out of this! I shouldn't have given you any chances- you stink of the woman who killed me! Now give me the stone!"

The last words came in a shout as he lunged for Kagome, his claws flashing out like lightning. She dodged, but just barely. The men had let out a shout when he attacked her, but the old woman held up a hand. She seemed to be rummaging in her pockets for something. "Leave the girl be, you devil!"

Kagome was dumbfounded. "You were actually trying to hurt me! You- you- you _motherfucker!_ "

She did not usually swear, but this felt like an appropriate time for it. She saw Inuyasha pause at the expletive, eyes going wide. Then he sneered at her. "You aren't like Kikyo at all, are you? She was more ladylike than that. And much prettier."

Kagome felt her ears heating. She stomped her foot, wincing at a lance of pain that quickly reminded her of the gash in her side that she had briefly forgotten. Their exchange got no further before Inuyasha tensed, getting ready to attack once more. Kagome knew that this was probably her last moment before ending up dog chow. Just like the snake monster. She gritted her teeth, ready to try and dive out of the way.

As Inuyasha moved forward, the old lady flung something out at him. It was a beaded necklace, totally incongruous to the grim situation that Kagome had resigned herself to just a moment ago. The woman had perfect aim, because the necklace landed right around Inuyasha's neck, like a horseshoe around a post. He skidded to a stop, hands pawing at the beads. Kagome watched curiously as he tried to take it off, but something seemed to stop him. It was almost as if the necklace was too heavy for him to lift.

As he scrabbled, the old woman hobbled to Kagome's side. "Listen here, girl. You just use an incantation to hold him, and he can't do nothing to you."

She raised her voice to address the white-haired boy, who was only a few feet away anyway. "You hear that, boy? And I'd give up with that nonsense now, you ain't getting those prayer beads off."

Kagome was flustered by this strange old lady, who was at least head-and-shoulders shorter than her. "What kind of incantation? I don't know any magic!"

The old lady scoffed. "Just say something, drat it! It ain't a spell, it's just words. Pick anything. It'll be tied into you."

Inuyasha finally gave up fighting the hold of the prayer beads. Glowering at Kagome and the old woman, he stalked forward. His claws glinted white with moonlight as he raised his hand to strike. A low growl rumbled from the back of his throat that struck Kagome as utterly doglike. As the boy brought his claws down for the final blow, Kagome panicked. She screwed up her courage and yelled the first thing that sprang to mind.

"SIT!"

Inuyasha slammed face-first into the ground.


End file.
